It all started in 2002, when Vin Diesel was quoted in GQ Magazine, about his love of Dungeons and Dragons. VIN DIESEL! I mean, this was, what, like the fourth celebrity who we knew for relative certainty enjoyed the same kind of geeky pastimes that – you know – NERDS like you and I did! It was affirmation (of sorts)! It was amazing (at the time). It was, at the very least, damned cool.

Which gave me the idea for some strips:

What shocks me more is how times have changed. The second strip in the series, for example, set out to lay out the evidence prooving to folks that these fine celebrities were, indeed, gamers. Because many people just didn’t believe it.

The shift in how we view celebrity gamers – indeed, the sheer number of them, now – puts me in mind a bit of the 1,000th Dork Tower comic strip that ran last year. There’s been a massive upheaval in our Geeky Little Hobby. It’s not so little anymore, and it’s far more mainstream than anyone ever could have guessed, ten or fifteen years ago.

It took Wil Wheaton’s wonderful Tabletop webcast to really hammer that point home to me. Now, look, I don’t wanna sound – you know – OLD, or anything, but…holy crap. I mean, I just exchanged some e-mails with Liam McIntyre – the star of the Starz show “Spartacus,” gamer and (most directly related to my interests) Munchkin player. (Great bloke, by the way – there will be shenanigans).